N&R: Canon, Leica, Panasonic Sigma, Sony, Tamron, Cactus and Sekonic

Sony RX1R III may be coming, but will it be worth an upgrade?

Canon

The 35mm macro lens rumoured last week has been announced, with the most surprising feature being a built-in ring light.

The next lens rumoured to come from Canon will be a 85mm f1.4, with the interesting feature being that it will have image stabilisation.

Also, if you're a fan of superzooms, the Canon Powershot sx730 with an equivalent 24-960mm lens has been announced.

Leica

A 75mm f/1.25 lens is rumoured to be coming soon, with no doubt an astronomical price to match.

Panasonic

There is much arguing on the internet about the GH5's continuous auto-focus capabilities when shooting video. FStoppers posted an article about it, and soon after, another about how divided the community is.

It seems the sensible conclusion is the GH5 is an amazing video camera, except for the auto-focus. Which makes sense when you think about it not having on sensor PDAF like recent Canon and Sony cameras.

If you're thinking about buying a GH5, you may also want to watch this video... which identifies both the auto-focus problem, as well as an issue with the image stabilisation when walking without a gimbal.

Sigma

A Sigma Quattro firmware update now brings DNG support, which DPReview considers a game changer. To quote DPReview reader WesPerry:

I'm sure it's owner will be thrilled.

Sony

Rumour has it that Sony will shortly announce a new Sony RX1R Mark III. The reported changes are:

• Better operations
• 4k video recording capabilities
• Improved EVF

Although all these are nice to haves, none of these would be enough to make me consider upgrading from the Mark II. For me to upgrade, the features I'd want to see are:

• Dual SD Card Slots
• Joystick for AF Point selection
• PDAF making use of an attached flash/trigger to emit AF light
• IBIS

I once said I would buy the Mark II if it had an EVF and PDAF - and I put my money where my mouth is. Let's see if Sony can do it again.

Tamron

There are many reviewers all at once comparing the Tamron 70-200 G2 to the Nikon offering. Definitely worth considering if you're after a 70-200 and want to save some cash.

Cactus

Cactus will, via a firmware update for their V6 and V6II triggers, allow cross-brand TTL.

The new X-TTL firmware versions, apart from supporting cross-brand high-speed sync (HSS/FP), remote power and zoom control of Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax and Sigma flashes all at the same time, NOW support automatic TTL exposure in the same cross-brand environment, both exposure on-camera and off-camera. 

The first wave of firmware releases will be for Sigma, Sony, and Fujifilm.

I can remember when Cactus were called Poverty Wizards, and considered an unreliable poor man's Pocket Wizard. Bravo Cactus, bravo. You're now much more interesting than anything from Pocket Wizard recently.

However, I still have my Pocket Wizards collecting dust in the draw, and I wouldn't consider Cactus. It's just a pain to use any lights without an inbuilt receiver.

Sekonic

Sekonic have announced a new light meter capable of measuring HSS flash bursts and graphing flash output and duration.

There will be optional radio transmitter modules for Elinchrom, Phottix, and PocketWizard, as expected. What would really interest me would be a Godox module. Flash Havoc has stated:

Separately both Godox and Sekonic sound positive about the idea, though I don’t know if its even been discussed between them.

As I'm not in the process of trying to move all my off camera lights to Godox, I really hope this can happen.